Yuvraj Singh batting again at Durban’s Kingsmead will revive memories of the sixes he slapped around that venue on September 19, 2007. It will not though, revive any happy recollections for the England seamer Stuart Broad who suffered most from that thrashing.

A steamy Durban night – India are 155/3 in the seventeenth over and looking for a miracle to get a match winning total on the board. Yuvraj arrives and changes the scene. Five successive sixes off Broad in the over; the last of the sixes was off the famed Fredalo Flintoff, as the score fairly scooted along from 177/3 at the start of the assault on Broad to the long-off six off Flintoff and 207/3.

It became the talking point of the first ICC World T20 event and won over many adherents to the game, so much so, they even watch Tests because of it.

However, times have seriously changed. Two serious security breaches along with the Indian general elections has combined with a rushed decision by the BCCI mandarins, led by Lalit Modi, to remove the second edition of the Indian Premier League to South Africa. There is a major danger here as well.

What with Mumbai 26/11 and Lahore 3/3, security became a major factor for Modi as the Indian politicians squabbled, as usual over dates. But there was always a danger here. With money the overriding factor, Modi, when could not get his own way, resorted to hijacking another country’s infrastructure, and thumb his nose at the general elections as an effort to twist the arm of the government.

There are other ponderable issues as well. It means that unless there are special arrangements those Indian players involved may not get the chance to vote in the elections. Legally, it could become a violation of individual rights, but as the Indian chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami points out, the players would need special permission, through the BCCI and the sports ministry. Proxy voting is not permissible.

As television shots of the media conference showed Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola becoming very pally with Modi, there were other concerns. Both men dispensed with ties, and the bonhomie exuded, gave the impression that South Africa’s decision to host the IPL is more to do with the money, which is going to be made out of the deal than the actual staging of the event over five weeks from April 18.

It recalled the arrival of that ace fraudster, Allen Stanford at Lord’s, last year with a plastic case packed with millions of dollars. On this occasion, though, Modi was not able to pull that conjuring trick. Currency regulations are much tighter in South Africa, or so they would have you believe.

Yet the way they smiled and the metaphorical backslapping hid other areas in the arrangement that will emerge at some stage. Newspaper reporters were throwing around figures of 70-million to 90-million in South African currency, some even ventured at 100-million rands and not the US$25-million that a CSA source has now revealed is the final figure.
Source – cricketnext.in.com